1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to targeted commercial messages. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for targeting audiences and controlling presentation of commercial messages in a broadcast environment.
2. Background of the Related Art
In the United States and many other industrialized countries, most television and radio is commercial in nature. Accordingly, television viewers (or radio listeners, as the case may be) are assumed to view (or listen to) the commercial messages, or advertisements, that broadcast as part of the programming content to which they are tuned. (As used herein, viewer and listener are synonymous terms.) Consequently, a broadcaster sells advertising time to sponsors, and sponsors generally try, as best possible, to target commercial messages to an anticipated audience. For example, Saturday morning children's television programming typically includes commercial messages that are directed to children. Similarly, programming intended to appeal to teenage girls typically includes commercial messages for products that appeal to teenage girls, and so on.
Systems have been developed for targeting delivery of advertisements over a telecommunications network, such as the Internet. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,061 to Merriman et al. discloses a targeted advertisement system that is based on a non-generalized, non-broadcast system model that uses a one-to-one connection between an advertisement source and a receiver. Advertisement targeting is based on tracking the particular Internet websites that a user accesses and by generating a user-specific profile for each tracked user. A user profile is stored locally to a user (i.e., on the user's computer), and is used and updated by a targeted advertising application. Such targeted advertisement systems, however, cannot work in a broadcast environment, such as that for television and radio, because a broadcast environment does not provide a one-to-one connection between a broadcaster and particular members of a broadcast audience. Consequently, there is no reliable way for a broadcaster to generate a user profile because there is no reliable way to determine which particular audience members are viewing programming content.
Moreover, there is not a convenient way for a sponsor to target commercial messages to a specific audience in a general broadcast environment, let alone for a sponsor to directly determine whether a particular commercial message was viewed or has generated any specific interest. Additionally, there is not a convenient way for a particular audience member to become a willing target of a specific type of commercial message other than by watching content directed to the corresponding specific audience. For example, a viewer who is interested in purchasing a new car cannot voluntarily become the target of selected advertising that is intended only for new car buyers. Instead, the viewer must currently view programming in which new car advertising is typically broadcast.
Consequently, what is needed is a way to provided directed advertising in a broadcast media environment, such as television and radio. Additionally, what is needed is a way to provide feedback to an advertiser regarding undirected and directed advertising in a broadcast media environment.